A Hole in the Ground (and a broken link, a sheared bolt)

The plan was simple: enjoy the DRT+HitG one more time this year, before it gets too cold, before it gets snowed in – and expose Tom to its glorious goodness.

Well, sometimes not everything goes according to plan.

Just over one mile in, after finishing the initial climb from the Donner Lake traihead to the DRT, I felt something funny at my left crank. It felt even funnier when it completely detached from its rightful location, the bottom bracket, and was just dangling from my foot. The crank bolt had sheared in two pieces and there was nothing we could do to get the bike to somewhat work again. Well, it was possible to descend with one crank back to the trailhead, which actually did provide some entertainment.

Truckee was close by so we went there to look for a bike shop – our luck took a turn for the better as the friendly folks of Cyclepaths in Truckee were able to quickly fix things up. But we still had wasted a good chunk of time driving around so we decided to settle for the regular HitG loop (which made me suspect for a second that Tom might have sabotaged my bike, to prevent me from dragging him along on a 30miler in the high Sierra)...

We started out doing the road and fireroad section – and then the fun could start. Conditions were perfect at the time – not too warm, not too cold, some clouds, fall colors here and there, and the climb up Andesite provided plenty of purrty views. Soon we got into the flow of the trail, and took on a brisky pace. There was a group of three ahead of us going at an equally brisk pace, and we passed a couple from New York state vacationing in the area.

At the midway point of the loop, about 7 miles from each trailhead, I stopped right after a chunky section to get some photos; while Tom was descending said section, a loud popping noise accompanied the downhill action, a noise that had the unmistakable and terrifying character of disintegrating bike parts. It turned out the linkage of his Santa Cruz Blur LT rear suspension had broken (in multiple pieces, not all of which we were able to retrieve) – see the photos below to get some idea of the damage. Perfect spot for this, we couldn’t be farther out from civilization and the impending dread of a 7 mile hike-a-bike under looming thunderstorms didn’t exactly lighten up the mood.

However, as the stereotype has it, in every crisis there is opportunity, and Tom got the bright idea of lodging a rock in between his seat tube and the seatstays. This would prevent his bottom bracket from sinking down to near-ground due to the defunct linkage and now dangling free shock, effectively turning it into a hardtail: the Santa Cruz limited edition Blur LT ‘Hard’ Tail with custom rock-link! He had wrapped some duct tape around the rock and I suggested using his cellphone pouch to spread out the contact force and protect the seat tube. More duct tape was dug up from the depths of his backpack, to keep the entire assembly in place and I had to bow my head in respect for such preparedness (previously, I had given him plenty of flack for carrying too much stuff around ‘that one would never use’ on rides). I now agree, there can never be enough duct tape!

It all worked surprisingly well (pics below), even on the chunkier sections of trail (of which there are rather a few). I had a pretty great time on the rocks and didn’t even have to feel bad for Tom’s misadventure, as he was able to maintain a very decent pace, taking it easy on the hard sections, to protect the integrity of his brand new hardtail as much as possibe.

Close to the end, at the staircased hairball section I dabbed on the same tight righthander I had trouble with last time; third time right time perhaps? Anyway, lets call this one an eventful day out in the woods, and conclude that some McGyver-style thinking and duct tape are the fabric that keeps mankind going!